{"id":161773,"date":"2026-01-26T06:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=161773"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:46:15","slug":"5-expert-tips-how-to-make-the-best-of-crew-dynamics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/5-tips\/5-expert-tips-how-to-make-the-best-of-crew-dynamics-161773","title":{"rendered":"5 expert tips: How to make the best of crew dynamics"},"content":"When I go out on the Solent to go racing, I often see a lot of boats not even doing a single practice run before the start,\u201d says Ian Williams. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t do a practice run, you\u2019ve got pretty much zero chance of getting your time on distance right.\u201d\r\n\r\nTo a match racing<\/a> helmsman like Williams, time on distance is part of his religion, although he understands why some sailors might be loath to practise such a critical part of the race. \u201cPractising a timed run does require a little bit of planning. Maybe you\u2019re late off the dock, you\u2019ve got other priorities competing for limited time on the water, maybe getting the rig set up, practising your tacks and gybes \u2013 so I get it.\u201d\r\n\r\nBut there\u2019s really very little excuse for not working on your time on distance judgement. \u201cIt\u2019s a learned skill. To some people it might come naturally, but for me, I do it much more mathematically. I\u2019ve done enough of it that I think I can judge the distance quite well now,\u201d he says with typical understatement.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that whoever you are, the more you practise it, the better you\u2019ll get.\u201d Here are Ian\u2019s best tips for nailing your time on distance.\r\n

Do a practice run<\/h2>\r\nDo at least one practice run before any racing start. If you\u2019re in a big one-design fleet the start can be crucial. In a handicap fleet, nailing the start to the second might be less critical \u2013 even so, you definitely want to do at least one practice run to get a feel for the current and the wind and how quickly you\u2019re going to close the line.\r\n\r\nThe key thing is always to make sure you\u2019re near the start line 15-20 minutes before the start. Sometimes the pin end mark gets laid quite late, so make sure you\u2019ve done everything else in preparation and leave those final minutes as an opportunity to test the line once it\u2019s been set up.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n

Judge distance<\/h2>\r\nIn match racing we normally have our bowman calling how long it would take us to get to the start line, updating every three or four seconds the number of seconds that it\u2019s going to take to get there. I\u2019d expect an experienced bowman to be within about 10% accuracy. It\u2019s not an exact science, but when you get tuned in after some practice, your bowman should be hitting that level of accuracy.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019re always thinking whether we want to lead or follow back to the line, so there\u2019s an extra layer that doesn\u2019t apply to a fleet race. But the principles of judging time on distance are the same. In a fleet race, the critical time is when you\u2019re coming across on port and tacking in towards the line onto starboard \u2013 you need to know how long it will take you to get to the line from that point.\r\n

The five-second rule<\/h2>\r\nI use a very rough rule of thumb for a zero current and a non-biased line. In pretty much any displacement keelboat it normally takes about five seconds to travel a boat length upwind. So let\u2019s say we\u2019re 10 boat lengths away from the line, in which case I know that it\u2019s 50 seconds of full speed sailing to get there.\r\n\r\nThis is something I\u2019d always confirm by way of a practice run. I\u2019ll line the boat up on starboard, going upwind at full speed, then time how long it takes to do 10 boat lengths. So if it takes a minute, then I know it\u2019s six seconds a length. If it takes 40 seconds, it\u2019s four seconds a length. That will obviously vary depending on the speed of the boat, the bias on the line, and any current.\r\n\r\nKnowing what full speed at the line feels like gives you the understanding of whether the fleet is lining up a bit too close to the line, or if you can afford to punch forward a little bit.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_156275\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Race start for the famous Rolex Sydney Hobart. Photo: Rolex\/Carlo Borlenghi[\/caption]\r\n

Recalculate for bias<\/h2>\r\nThings change as soon as line bias or current come into play. The more bias on the pin, the more time you need to factor into your final run towards the line. If normally it\u2019s five seconds per boat length, on a very pin-biased line it\u2019s quite possible you\u2019re looking at eight or nine seconds per boat length.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re somewhere very tidal with a couple of knots of current, again you may need to adjust your time on distance dramatically. I like to express current as boat lengths per minute, So if you\u2019ve got two knots of current against you, that\u2019s about a metre per second. So if you\u2019re in a 10m boat, it\u2019s about a boat length every 10 seconds; over a minute, it\u2019s six lengths. So your unit then is six lengths per minute. And you\u2019d know at a minute out from the start that you really want to be six lengths further up-tide of where you\u2019d normally be.\r\n

Reaching starts<\/h2>\r\nAs with upwind starts, I like to get a top speed and know how many metres I am from the line. One really important thing to know with a reaching start is what I call the Line Wind Angle; is the wind blowing straight down the line or rather from in front or behind?\r\n\r\nCritical is how close you can get to sailing along the line at an upwind angle, as you\u2019re likely to approach the start sailing upwind. If you can sail along the line like that you can stay very close to the line and then bear away with only a few second to go.\r\n\r\n
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During the build-up to the 2024 America\u2019s Cup, inside the INEOS Britannia team we came up with a set of team values that we ran our daily lives by,\u201d says Freddie Carr. \u201cWhether you\u2019re competing in the America\u2019s Cup or the Hamble Winter Series, I think there\u2019s a set of core values that can really help bring crews together.\u201d If you\u2019ve been sailing together for a while those values can develop organically. But if you\u2019re still only getting to know each other, it\u2019s helpful to define those values early on in the campaign. \u201cIt\u2019s good to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the team and tell each other that everything you discuss, however difficult or painful, is ultimately about making the boat go faster,\u201d he says. Freddie believes the British team\u2019s rate of improvement throughout AC37 was in part due to the team\u2019s buy-in to a set of values that they\u2019d defined about six months before the competition began in Barcelona. \u201cWe had our sailing team mantras pinned inside our lockers, reminding us every day how we were going to work as a team. I thoroughly recommend it, whatever level you\u2019re at.\u201d Here are Freddie\u2019s five best tips for creating a bomb-proof team dynamic born out of strong shared values. Feedback and honesty It\u2019s good to have your team values written down and commonly shared and understood, particularly when you\u2019re about to go into a tricky debrief or conversation where somebody might need to be critical of somebody else. One of our values is that feedback is for the greater goal, which is to make the boat go faster. That gets everyone into a place where constructive feedback and honesty is much easier to share. We were also encouraged to speak up and to \u2018swim against the tide\u2019. When you\u2019re in a meeting with a lot of strong individuals, it\u2019s easy for someone to lead the conversation, after which it can get harder and harder for someone to take the opposite point of view. So we actively encouraged people to throw in an alternative viewpoint, and we called that \u2018swimming against the tide\u2019. It\u2019s really useful for avoiding a team lapsing into \u2018group think\u2019. Learn faster In Barcelona our main goal was to learn faster than the opposition and we felt we did that all summer. Which is why we went from being maybe fourth or fifth out of the challengers in the Preliminary Regatta to ultimately winning the Louis Vuitton Cup and fighting through to the Match itself. We achieved that because we did such a good job of learning faster, and the reason for that is because of our openness to feedback. Everybody, from Ben [Ainslie] down to the cyclors who were learning to sail, could sit in a room and debrief with complete honesty. Nobody took offence or tried to defend a position. Achieving that level of honesty is never easy, and it\u2019s probably harder at non-professional levels in the sport. But if you can instil a …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":161776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[546,975],"tags":[846,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161779,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161773\/revisions\/161779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161773"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=161773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}